Chapters 10, 11, and 12

1. Chapters 10, 11, and 12 Rachel McCabe

2. http://scaleofuniverse.com/ • Just a quick app because we were talking about scale!

3. Don your tinfoil hats • 10: Cow to mink prion transmission, and infected growth hormone • 11: The beginning of BSE, and the failures of the ministry • 12: The escalation and public reaction to the BSE outbreak

4. Chapter 10- The Silencing • 1985- TME appears in Wisconsin • Marsh and Hartsough arrive on the scene • They suppose that the mink are eating scrapie infected sheep • Check the farmers meticulous records: • Downer cows were a major part of the minks’ diet • Marsh and Hartsough conclude that the agent must come from the cows

5. Marsh isn’t very compelling on the public stage… • He attended a cattlemen’s meeting warning the farmers of the scrapie-like agent • He had inoculated cows with TME from minks, and vice versa • The disease was transferable both ways, and both modes of transmission were lethal • Marsh didn’t have the public personality to fight the cattle industry • The suppliers ignored his warnings

6. The Growth Hormone Scandal • Only human growth hormone was functional at treating growth disorders • Source of hGH? The pituitary gland of the brain • This was a miracle! There was a huge demand for pituitary glands from cadavers • Until one 17 year old boy was diagnosed with CJD. • Sound familiar? What are the ramifications of person to person spread of prion diseases?

7. Itty bitty pituitary gland

8. Chapter 11- Mad Cows • April 1985- England • A cow named Jonquil started showing unnerving symptoms: shaking, staggering, seeming to hallucinate • She was taken to a rendering plant, and chopped into feed.

9. The Beginning of the Ministry’s Involvement • Several other animals at this farm started showing the same symptoms • Soon the symptoms were showing in farms in completely different counties • Rules out infectious disease • 1986- The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food launched an investigation

10. Wells’ Work • Gerald Wells, a veterinary pathologist, examines some of the brain tissue • Saw typical scrapie spongiform tissue • Scrapie hadn’t been documented in cows previously • Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) • His research did not appear in a journal until a year after he submitted it • There was not much of a media response, but the government took notice

11. Alarm at the Ministry • “I was just down the corridor when the guys from the central veterinary laboratory came in. Quite a hubub… they were talking about scrapie. I understood scrapie. But they were also talking about some things I’d never heard of—Creutzfelt-Jakob disease and some thing called ‘kuru,’ a rare form of CJD once common in New Guinea among the Fore tribe of cannibals.

12. Dr. John Wilesmith • By the end of 1987, there are 420 confirmed BSE cases. • The ministry hires Dr. Wilesmith, a veterinarian, to investigate. • December 1987- It is determined that BSE is associated with a feedborne source- specifically the meat and bone meal coming from the rendering factories.

13. Beef or Dairy? • Mostly, the meat/bonemeal was fed to mostly dairy cows, not cows that are sold for meat. • Isn’t BSE non-transmissible in milk? • Devil’s advocate for the ministry-if the agent isn’t getting into the products, why should we care about BSE?

14. Why did the ministry act the way it did? • The ministry had both Wells’ and Wilesmith’sdata. • The author blames the ministry for keeping the public “blissfully unaware” of the disease. • Do you think what the ministry did was right? • Should the public have had the right to know? • What would be the implications of media coverage?

15. Ministry tries to keep a low profile • “They vetoed any suggestion that questions could be raised to the Parliament concerning BSE and instead suggested putting a paragraph into a journal an obscure veterinary journal that nobody read.” • “The ministry does not yet see BSE as a serious threat to public health”

16. The Story Breaks • April 22, 1988 • The Sunday Telegraph and Farming News publish articles describing the disease. • Many critics accuse the ministry of ignoring the extent of BSE. • They also claim that the ministry’s primary focus was not the public’s safety. • Do you think this is true?

17. 12- The Cover Up • Eating scrapie infected meat from sheep was safe for human consumption. • The author argues that the ministry “simply ignored the possibility that this disease could ever be transmitted to humans” • Do you agree with the author? • If so, how should the ministry have treated BSE?

18. The Ministry Acts • BSE becomes a “notifiable disease;” this suspends the use of animal proteins in feeds for cows and sheep. • Another interest group steps on the scene: the Renderer’s Association. • They had a huge supply, and did not want to lose their industry. • “So what if another scrapie outbreak was on their doorstep?” • The brains of these infected cows were routinely sold in public over the counter butcher shops, as well as baked into popular meat pies

19. The ministry’s go-to line: “there is no evidence of any risk to humans” • Meanwhile, Dr. Tim Holt writes an article that warns the public about the connection of BSE to scrapie, kuru, and CJD. • June 20 1988- the first time BSE is recognized as an “epidemic” • More than 600 cows had already died from BSE.

20. BSE is Recognized • Compulsory slaughter of infected animals is enforced • Farmers are to get 50% of the market value price for giving up their animals. • The farmers hated this! • How could the compensation price relate to the spread of the BSE epidemic? • Even so, the government still does not want outsider assistance • Even when Marsh offered up his services, the ministry declined

21. By October 1988, there were 70 new cases of BSE being reported every month. • This is a much faster rate than previously predicted. • Breakthrough: BSE had been successfully transmitted to mice, showing that the agent is capable of interspecies transmission. • It was predicted that there would be a total of 17,000-20,000 cases of BSE in total; this turned out to be a gross underestimate.

22. What to do with the bodies? • The government had decided to incinerate the corpses of the infected cows, but they were starting to pile up. • The transportation and slaughter of these cows was a gory process • The public became additionally aware after viewing photographs taken of these tragedies.

23. BSE spreads to other countries • By 1989, the first international cases of BSE are starting to spring up. • However, Britain wants to continue to export the possibly infected meat and bonemeal abroad. • Germany, USA, France… all these places start boycotting British meat. Even starving Russia. • The ministry tries very hard to assure the public that there is nothing wrong with British meat, but to no avail.

24. More Compensation • As expected, farmers were trying to sneak their possibly infected cows into the normal market instead of eliminating the infected ones. • The ministry itself led to the spread of BSE because the government didn’t offer enough money for infected cows in the beginning. • How else did the ministry unintentionally spread BSE through its actions?

25. Conclusion: • The epidemic is showing no signs of slowing. • By June 1992, there were now 631 cases per week, with almost 100,000 new cases reported over the past 4 years. • There are many sources of blame for the situation. • Who do you think was at fault for this situation? • What could have been done better?